The Albanian Secret Service, known to citizens as SHIK (National Information Service) has had nine directors since the fall of the communist regime, and resignations have been very rare.
From 1990, seven Secret Service Directors have been dismissed and only two have resigned, Irakli Kocollari and now Visho Ajazi Lika.
Bahri Shaqiri, Ajazi’s predecessor, was fired as soon as the Interior Minister of the Democratic Party, Bujar Nishani, was appointed President. Nishani’s first act as President was appointing Visho Ajazi Lika as the new Director of the Secret Service.
Visho Ajazi’s public appearances were very rare. He appeared once when he signed an agreement between Prosecutor General Adriatik Llalla and Socialist Minister Saimir Tahri, as an effort to increase cooperation between institutions.
His name was mentioned once again during a heated political debate, whether the Secret Service had spied on politicians or not. Visho Ajazi Lika had to testify in front of a commission as witness for another spying case, that of the “IMSI catcher”, which was never proven.
More recently, his institution was involved in the debate about cannabis, and one of his cases for a possible involvement of the police is still under investigation.
After his resignation, the name proposed as successor of Ajazi is Helidon Bendo, who started his service as a simple agent. The only similar thing with Ajazi is that he was hired at the same time, and that he used to be an immigrant as well. He even had changed his name to a Greek one, Johan.
Bendo has slowly served as district director, until April 2016, when he became Vice Chief, or the second person in charge after Visho Ajazi.
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